Biggs butchers Angela Bigg was in my class at Etonbury , i believe the butchers had a racehorse as well.John Hayes reminded me the horse’s name was Oxo .I remember now lots of Arlesey people having a flutter on it when it ran.

A nice colour photo of the Cosy cinema , Nipper Dalton’s mum used to run it.

Peter Goodwins Bakery I believe he had a skip hire business as well. it would be good to have a bakery in the village like Stotfold has Ashwell Bakery.

I remember my Mr Hildon senior mainly , and going in there with my mum. He stocked stuff for the Hospital road Italians as well.

Lamb Meadow I remember playing there for the under sixteens, and there was a very large crowd against a much fancied Hitchin Argonauts.I think we drew 1-1.

Three Counties Firemans helmets .I think the Fairfield hospital huts are in the background.

W.I. being refurbished after the fire.What caused the fire? I bet the Insurance company would have tried hard getting out of paying for it today. Slightest thing and they don’t payout.The womens institute was built out of wood in 1918. It was used as a cinema until the Cosy opened in 1920. Later on London Brick Company donated all the bricks needed to rebuild it because even when i was a boy in the sixties it was also the village hALL.

The Womens Institute was first made out of wood . It was used as a cinema to start with . London Brick donated the bricks for the building so it could be rebuilt .New roof going on the W.I. parking was bad there then as well.Arlesey Women’s Institute Hall re-opened on the 29th October two years after being gutted by fire on 15th April 1981, the cost of restoration and rebuilding being around £24,000.

I wonder why the double window was bricked up.Did Mr Biggs own the slaughterhouse as well ?

Grimes cottage with the railway memorabilia.Shame it was taken down i always used to look at it. Lyn lives there now I believe.

What a lovely little cottage shame it was demolished and not refurbished.

Even though Karl Franklin it was always cold even with a roaring fire. I remember a row of cottages behind there with an outside tap for the tenants.

When I first put my family tree on Ancestry.co.uk I was contacted from New Zealand saying they had seen my tree and it partly matched theirs.They were relatives of a George Allen.I wondered if he was a convict , but found that New Zealand would not accept convicts.I have just found evidence that they very reluctantly accepted some pardoned young offenders , but very few and made a hell of a fuss about it . I looked through the names and one was called George Allen.Could this be the same George Allen?

The Boys from Parkhurst Prison

On the the Isle of Wight there was a Military Hospital and Children’s asylum, called ‘Parkhurst’ was built on land in the centre of the island in 1778, a large and stately looking house surrounded by its own grounds. By 1838, the British Home Office had decided to convert the property into a prison for young boy offenders up to the age of 15 years, soon to be occupied by some 102 convicted boys transferred from other prisons.

Many of these boys, some as young as twelve, had committed offences which could only be described today as misdemeanours. Theft and shoplifting, picking pockets or stealing food, were the main offences which had been dealt with harshly by the Police Magistrate's Court in those days, sentences of imprisonment and deportation to Australia for seven to ten years being quite common.

Most of these lads had come from underprivileged homes where the act of theft and stealing had been generated by their need for food or adequate clothing to keep out the cold winter winds, frost and snow.In 1843, under a new Governor named Captain George Hall, the boys were employed moulding and baking house bricks with which they were to build two new wings for the prison.
By 1853 the transporation of convicts to Australia had ceased .

In the year 1841, after lobbying by the Quakers, the British Home Office decided to grant a conditional pardon from the Crown to boys between 13 and 16 years old who were detained in Parkhurst Prison. The boys were to be carefully chosen as deserving a pardon by the then prison governor, Captain Woolcombe. The 'condition' was that the boys were to serve a two-year apprenticeship on arrival in New Zealand before being given their independence .The boys who accepted this 'pardon' were to be called 'immigrant boys,' however, the authorities both in England and later New Zealand, still recognised them as criminals just the same.

Eighteen young boys who were ordered to be deported by the Court and who were now granted a Crown pardon, were selected to be sent to Freemantle, Australia. The Simon Taylor left England on the 29th April, 1842 with 245 passengers aboard, eighteen of them Parkhurst Boys, arriving after 111 days, on the 20th August. The Captain presented the Governor of the Colony with their documents of ‘conditional pardon’.

It was a great surprise to the early government in Auckland, when the barque St.George, under Captain Sughrue, sailed into the harbour on the 25th October, 1842, just two weeks later, with ninety-two ‘Parkhurst boys” aboard.

The then Acting Governor, Shortland, who had many other matters to deal with at the time, following the untimely death of Governor Hobson a few months before, decided to place the boys under the care and guardianship of Captain David Rough, the Government appointed Immigration Agent and Harbourmaster.

It was later considered in Government circles of the time, that the sudden arrival of these boys had breached an undertaking by the authorities in England, who, in setting up New Zealand as a separate Colony from Australia, had agreed that NO convicts were to be shipped. This action by the British Government was seen by the Auckland people as a total betrayal.

Scarcely had this matter quietened down, when, just over a year later, on the 14th November, 1843, a second vessel named the Mandarin, under Captain T. Smith, arrived in the harbour with another thirty-one Parkhurst 'immigrant boys" aboard. She had sailed from Gravesend on the 18th June 1843 via Hobart, Australia.The news of the arrival of more 'Parkhurst Boys' aboard the Mandarin spread rapidly around the growing township. The populace of Auckland were outraged!Letters of protest appeared in the Southern Cross and Auckland Chronicle newspapers voicing their strong disapproval of the British Government's actions.

It was found, meanwhile, that there were few openings for the boys in the Auckland workforce. The two trades they had been taught in Parkhurst Prison, tailoring and shoemaking were in little demand. Those in the second shipment who had skills in carpentery and building were given work on construction sites, while those boys who had nothing to offer were consequently put out to tasks that gave them no trade experience at all; some were sent to the copper mines on Great Barrier, where they were treated no better than slaves and the others employed working on the roads, often without boots or any protection on their feet.

The Acting Governor Shortland, voiced the public concern in a diplomatic note to London. On September 30th 1844 theNew Zealand Journal reported that:

“A notice was brought before the House of Lords of the evils likely to accrue to New Zealand from the transmission of convict boys to the Colony….. that New Zealand was colonised on the faith that it should never be inunduated with a convict population”.
The note continued:
“These reformed convicts are a nuisance and a disgrace to the community; the inhabitants of Auckland are now in constant dread of thefts and robberies from the ‘reformed convicts’.

An extract from the Southern Cross in the February 1844, also had this to say about the Parkhurst boys:

“The transportation of Parkhurst apprentices to this Colony appears by late accounts from England to be regarded by the friends of New Zealand as an evil and an act of injustice which should not be tolerated. In the Parliamentary intelligence of the Times on July 7th, we find that “The Archbishop of Dublin presented petitions from persons connected with the colony of New Zealand, praying that in future no emancipated convicts should be conveyed there as settlers. The persons who established that colony had a positive promise from the Government that no convicts should be sent to their settlement, yet recently two shiploads of convicts who had served their time had arrived from Parkhurst prison. It was a mere evasion to say that they were not convicts because they had served their period of imprisonment. To him it appeared that a convict and an emancipated one were much the same as a wild beast, loose and a wild beast chained. The petitioners were very anxious that they should have no more such imports.”
“The Earl of Devon said that the petition was well entitled to the careful consideration of the house. He did not think that the petitioners [ New Zealand] had been fairly treated.” “From the above we have every reason to hope that no more of the unfortunate Parkhurst Boys will be inflicted on this Colony.”

These publications and submissions to the British authorities in the Home Government seemed to have the desired effect and the transportation of boys from Parkhurst ceased.

By the year 1849 there was little to remind the public of Auckland of the scandal surrounding the arrival of the two ships of ‘Parkhurst Boys.’ They had quickly integrated into the everchanging Auckland society with the arrival of more and more immigrants families settling into the infant Colony.
Fortunately, they were the first and last ‘ex-convicts’ ever sent by the British authorities to the shores of New Zealand.

The dates don’t quite match but only by 2 years.George was born 1828/29 and in the 1851 census it says george aged 22 is still living at home .so at the moment it looks like it could be a different George Allen , so our George was probably a genuine migrant who immigrated slightly later to better himself.I will check the ship manifests next.Unless of course George managed to get home for a visit ,before returning to New Zealand. So if our George was born in 1828 , in 1843 he would have been 15 very close to the right age. 8 years later he could have saved enough money for a visit home.So really the jury is out as to wether this is the same George Allen , or just a coincidence?

She attended the Arlesey Siding school next to the Three Tuns pub . She went to the Cosy Cinema for entertainment, a corrugated iron building at the end of Hospital Road .This shook when trains went passed and blocked out the sound of the film. Across the beautiful Victorian railway bridge,was a common where cows grazed and went down to the river to water and cool down in the summer. It was also a place for ball games and walks over to Henlow Camp. She also went for walks to Arlesey Pits as it was called then. There was an old Post Office in the High Street where you stepped down from the pavement to enter the dark interior , and they sold clothes upstairs.

old post office was it Howells in the sixties

goodwins the bakers

true Briton

Most of the kids were clothed either here or at the Co-0p.There was also the baker’s where you could watch the dough being kneaded by a fascinating machine through the window. The cottage where she lived for almost 5 years had, at that time, only gas laid on, no water and no electricity. They used a combination of gas lamps and oil lamps . Water had to be drawn from a stand pipe in the back yard, one of two that served the whole terrace. All hot water was heated on the gas stove, whether for a cup of tea or a bathe in the galvanised bath in front of the fire. The toilet was across the yard and in winter continually had it’s lead pipes burst. The stand pipe also had to be thawed out in very cold weather. Next to the toilet was the wash house where a wood burning boiler was fired up to do the weekly laundry. Hard work for her mother, Polly but for Alma with no responsibilities, it was among the happiest days of her life.

London Brick and the common where the Halifax aircraft crashed

love this shot with the open gate saying come on in

london brick

Reverend Beavan and Ralfeleo buonogorio

Arlesey Siding School open air service

the original Flying Scotsman

The Pits

The Pitts

Herbert and Polly Allen

Her dad Herbert worked at the nearby London Brick Company.It had several tall chimneys, none of which were illuminated during the war. One night I remember hearing a plane circling round and suddenly a terrible crash as it struck one of the chimneys. We learned later that it had been a Halifax practising dropping supplies at low level in Henlow. It was completely destroyed by fire which set off ammunition that she could hear from where it crashed in the common. Sadly all 13 crew perished. They later moved in with Herbert’s dad, Big Jim, who lived in the Gothic Farm House that was at the bottom of the yet to be built Lynton Avenue. One day her little brother George got out and was found cuddling the huge shire horse’s leg. This obviously frightened them, but she said the horse stood dead still and never moved a muscle, as if he knew it was a toddler down there. Herbert, Alma’s dad, then bluffed his way into the Foreman’s job at Arlesey London Brickyard. They the got the foreman’s house at the brickyard, handy for the pub. I remember mum telling me she always wanted to go with her older brothers and sisters, but being the smallest they used to put her in an empty clay carrying truck and start it rocking up and down. By the time it stopped and she could jump out they were gone.

I remember my brother and sister doing similar to me, go and get ur wellies on, they said, and when I came back out they were gone. They lived at the Brickyard until the family got a council house at St Peters Ave when Alma was 10 .

Halifax that crashed

Arlesey Common where the plane crashed

dad Peter Lombari

Brickground Workers

Arlesey siding primary school

That would have been 1938. The war then started and Arlesey was filled with London overspill. The classes got so large that St Peters hall was used as an extra classroom. Mum used to tell me she went here, and she never got taught much ‘cos all they did was sing songs all day long. That was her story anyway. They had a greyhound dog called Whitey who helped supplement the family of seven’s budget by catching rabbits over the fields around the lake and the sandpits. Rabbit stew was supposed to be very tasty. All the gardens were cropped to make the cost of living a bit cheaper. She used to keep chickens for eggs, that was quite common as well; then you could eat the chickens when the laying stopped. There were even gas lights at St Peters Ave in 1938, outside toilets and no washing machines. The schooling was very limited because of the very large classes, caused by the children evacuating London during the war. Alma left school at 14.

the old vicarage

Tommy Baines

coop butchers

mum alma

granddad herbert allen and Polly Mary Mills allen

mollie , Polly and the twins daisey and jim

Primrose lane pump

10 lynton ave 1963

Mum on the float brother george in the pram nan holding the pram 1933 outside chemists

10 lynton ave 1954

Hospital road

Lynton Ave 1962

Alma Allen aged 10 and mum Polly and her brother George and 2 sisters Mollie and Daisey and lovely Whitey the dog

herbert allen died 1962

There were loads of jobs in those days, you could walk out of one job and start another the next day, as all the factories needed labour. Mum used to bike to work at Letchworth as did most people. Met dad at a dance in the W.I. hall. Dad was a prisoner of war. He had to go back after war. When dad was allowed back he lived at the vicarage with Mr Bevan the vicar. They got married and lived at 2, St Peters Ave with Herbert and her mum, Polly, her brother, George, her sister, Daisey and Daisey’s daughter, Lorna. They eventually got a council house in Lynton Ave, once mum was expecting her third child – me. Dad was doing very well at work and kept getting promoted, so he bought our own house at Davis Row. He then got transfered to Kenfig Hill in South Wales where they were building a very modern plant.

I Saw your post about Arlesey football club, and thought you might be interested in two of the attached photos which I believe are both of Arlesey teams. The one that looks like a boys team must have been taken in the early years of last century as my grandfather (Mark Emanuel Dear) is sitting in the middle of the front row and he was born in 1891. Not many around who could recognise the other players!

I believe the other is also an Arlesey team photo, probably from the 1920’s (Grandad is seated second from left) although there were rumours that he trialled and may have actually played for Luton Town but the only evidence I have for this is a newspaper cutting – more on this in a minute.

Mark was an avid football fan all his life and he moved from Arlesey to 74 Beech Road, Luton where he lived just 20 yards from the Bobbers Supporters Club entrance at the back of the football ground. I have some newspaper cuttings from the Luton News in the mid 1930’s of a lively correspondence he maintained with “Crusader” who I believe was the sports editor. In one of these, Crusader speaks of his enjoyment watching Mark play but unfortunately does not reveal who he was playing for.

Mark worked on the railways all his working life (52 years!) much of it as a signalman in Luton West signal box. He died in 1966 aged 75.

All the games were local derbies so losing was NOT AN OPTION . All the players were Arlesey men and you at least knew them or were related . If you saw one getting hurt , the situation sometimes got explosive.
On Arlesey’s first game the opposition Biggleswade complained that the cow dung had not been removed from the pitch in 1892 ,even though they won 4-1 .I believe Long meadow was the Brickyard meadow

The games were played in Long Meadow , Lamb Meadow , and the Common . Bowskill who was playing well forward , scored a goal ,one of our own players shouted “handball” and the referee disallowed it.
Playing on a Common means you are unable to charge a gate.
The first win was a 5-0 victory over Shefford.
Archie Williams was appointed headmaster of Arlesey School in 1897 and was heavy involved in the club . He coached his school boys into very successful local schoolboy teams.
ATFC team played in long trousers and their working boots , a few of the wealthier players bought themselves a proper football shirt. There were no proper pitch markings , these weren’t introduced until 1904.
I see City Field farmer’s boy Rawlings played , and scored a goal.
4 good old Arlesey names in the team as well a Kitchener , Page , Devereux and Fossey.
The next season Arlesey’s stroppiness started coming out. A penalty was awarded against them , and the whole team walked off the pitch. , but they were already losing 6-0 to St Neots away.
In 1894 The Bury Meadow became the main location for Arlesey Teams until after the World War ii . The owners Mr Waterton’s and then Mr H Goodwin’s sons later played for the Arlesey. The teams changed in Bury Hall and the team meeting were at the White Horse.
After the War London Brick owned Bury Meadow and wanted it for their own Social Recreation activities. A bowling green was created. I remember George Crawley , Mick Murphy and Alec Whyte played there. Tea served in the White Horse after the games.
In 1900 the Asylum Football club was more established and better than Arlesey. Some of the Asylum players would play for Arlesey as well if they were free. If they worked at the Asylum that is where their loyalties lay after all , they paid their wages.Some got good jobs at the asylum just because they were good at Football , Cricket , or played an instrument.
In one match the referee had to stop the game to caution one of the Arlesey spectators.The beginning of Football Hooligans. Arlesey was known as a rough place to visit , maybe due to all the heavy industry , and the associated heavy drinking. After all there were a lot more jobs than people living in Arlesey.
In 1902/3 season the first motor car arrived at Lamb Meadow Arlesey bringing MP Lord Alwyne Compton ,but he came to support fierce rivals Biggleswade. In another game against Potton in 1904 , Albon of Arlesey walked off with the ball ,after a penalty being awarded against us . They scored then the linesmen was ordered off, but he refused to go and carried on officiating.
Arlesey won the Biggleswade and District league in 1906/7. They used to travel by train , and Arlesey Brass Band played and met them at The Three Counties Station on their return.
In 1910 away to Potton , one of their players was sent off , the ball was kicked into the river and their fans invaded the pitch .The referee had no option but to abandon the game.
Arlesey were getting good gates 500 recorded for a Good Friday game against Kempston.A player from each side was sent off , the crowd invaded the pitch and the game was abandoned again.
One of Arlesey players was suspended to the end of the year and another for 2 months . So you can see aggressive behaviour from players caused rival supporters to start fighting again.
Players from the Asylum team played to strengthened Arlesey when they didn’t have a game for the Asylum.
1912 the landlord of the Lamb Inn told the football club they could no longer play on Lamb Meadow due to crowd trouble and the players preferring True Briton Ale to his .Mr Waterton had moved into the Bury and he allowed Arlesey to use his Meadow for games. Mr Waterton also allowed the players use of The Bury Hall to change , and the servants provided a healthy tea after the game for players and officials. Arlesey were due meet Biggleswade in the final of North Beds Charity Cup , but after protests from the other teams for fielding Asylum and Hitchin players in important games they were disqualified. They was an enquiry , and it was decided no rules had been broken. The team ended up League Champions anyway in the last season before World War 1
After the war Arlesey Bury was still the home of the football team. Even though two of Mr Waterton’s sons had fallen John and Jos Waterton. The village had lost 87 young men in total.
I liked some of the players nicknames “Cuddler Worbey” , “ToT” Templeman and Frank “Jammy” Rainbow.
Crowd trouble reared its ugly head again and Arlesey were banned from playing any games at home at THE BURY for the rest of the 1920-21 season.

But the team was still very successful , maybe another reason why the opposition were always putting in complaints against Arlesey.
Arlesey defeated a much fancied Chatteris side and the local supporters gave the referee an early bath by throwing him in a nearby ditch. The Arlesey supporters mad a quick exit to the nearby railway station.,before they got thrown in. Who would want to be a referee??
A record gate of 2,679 saw Arlesey saw the Blues defeat Meppershall in the North Beds Charity Cup .In 1923 Arlesey defeated Biggleswade 1-0 and they complained we played a Fulham professional Reg Albon
In 1928 at a home game against Luton Amateurs we got into serious trouble after an incident which resulted in the Chairman C King , secretary Joe Sharp (of Sharps High St Shop)and captain Jimmy Sell being banned from the rest of the season. That is how seriously we took our Football in Arlesey.
Despite warning notices being put up around the pitch , sixteen year old Gwen Monk asked a Kempston player to play the game after some rough play .He then offered Gwen some advice of a sexual nature which offended her older sister Dora. Gwen and Dora approached the player after the game and he hit Dora. Dora grabbed a nearby horse whip and struck him across the face. Dora was then banned from all Bedfordshire grounds for a year , and Arlesey were banned from playing any more games in Arlesey for 3 months!!!

photos and info courtesy ARLESEY TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB

Donald Jordan was the sponge man in the Steve Evans era and H.Goodwin the owner of the Bury.

The Pontoon club was very important in the history of Arlesey Football Club. They purchased Lamb Meadow ground from the brewery.
I understand why the Pontoon club wanted some say in the running of the club cos they funded nearly everything. The coach travel , the kit , player expenses ,(nearly all players were amateur then) , tea for spectators and players etc. When there was only one player in the team who lived in Arlesey even tho we had a very good youth team.The ground was shut for a year and lambs returned to graze on the pitch.
Eventually Mr Cheshire got the Fund money off the supporters club Pontoon Fund.The money from the Supporters Club (£1,410) transferred to the Football Club. The ground transfer not going so smooth The lease to Lamb Meadow was a much harder task tho.
Dr Davis was in the Pontoon Club commitee so it was quite respectible. Even tho there were mumblings of fiddle and fraud.Henry Wood was fined £11 with £3 costs and J Hughes Snr fined £4 with 3 guineas costs, for infringing …. Small Lotteries and Gaming Act 1956.
Mr. Culpin prosecuting stated that rumours of a fiddle were false. Police had every co-operation and reasonable books and ­accounts were kept. In the last two and half years the Supporters Club have given the Football Club two and a half thousand pounds in hard cash, also paid for transport, kit, ground improvements, laundry etc. Magnificent assistance for any amateur club to receive.
They purchased the premises and became landlords for the princely sum of just £500 in 1948. Four years later, in 1952, an adjoining area was bought in view of building a clubhouse on it. The area lay unused for a number of years until the arrival of ‘Biggs Wall’ who negotiated with the club to build temporary offices and canteen facilities – which the Football Club then bought back, turning them into what was then, the clubhouse. Mr Cheshire then heavily morgaged the new clubhouse , by remorgaging his own property etc , cos there was no more money coming in from the Pontoon Club. Mr Cheshire then had to run up large solicitor bills over the dispute.When they eventually sold lamb meadow for housing development , and only had to buy agricultural land for the new ground ,it must have been very very good business.